Griffin warmly welcomes Minister’s confirmation that Valentia Coast Guard radio station will remain open

Wednesday, November 28th 2012

Griffin warmly welcomes Minister’s confirmation that Valentia Coast Guard radio station will remain open

Fine Gael Kerry TD, Brendan Griffin, has warmly welcomed confirmation in the Dáil by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD, that Valentia and Malin Coast Guard Radio Stations will remain open. The future of the stations had been in doubt since last July, since the publication of the Fisher Report, which outlined a number of options on the future of the Coast Guard Service.

However, speaking in the Dail this afternoon in response to a Topical Issues contribution from Fine Gael Donegal TD, Joe McHugh, the Minister said that none of the three stations at Dublin, Malin or Valentia would be closing.

This is great news for Kerry and particularly for the Valentia community. I have liaised very closely with the Minister and his staff on this matter since July when the Fisher Report was first issued. I will continue to liaise with Minister Varadkar on the future of Valentia and the proposed changes that he will be pursuing.

“Today, the Minister said that through the utilisation of the most modern communications and IT infrastructure across a single national Coast Guard network, he will be proposing that the three centres will be more closely aligned and integrated.

“So the three Coast Guards Centres in Dublin, Malin and Valentia will continue to provide a service, but will be required to deliver new efficiencies. External consultants are working on the details of what this will entail, to help in the compilation of the Action Plan, which is due to be brought before Government in the coming weeks.

I would like to thank the Minister for his wise decision on this issue and I will continue to work with him on this very important matter.”